I servizi ecosistemici marini: studio e analisi delle metodologie di valutazione biofisica ed economica, predisposizione di un tool per l’automazione del processo di valutazione
Il progetto è realizzato nell’ambito del quadro istituzionale della Direttiva europea sulla Strategia Marina e del suo recepimento normativo (D.lgs. n. 190 del 13 ottobre 2010), con il MASE (Ministero dell’Ambiente e della Sicurezza Energetica) quale autorità di riferimento e l’ISPRA (Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale) come partner. L’iniziativa è finalizzata allo sviluppo e alla validazione di una metodologia integrata per la valutazione biofisica ed economica dei servizi ecosistemici marino-costieri e alla realizzazione di un tool informatizzato in ambiente GIS in grado di automatizzarne il calcolo e la restituzione cartografica. Il sistema consentirà di valutare in modo quantitativo servizi quali sequestro di carbonio, produzione di ossigeno, produzione di cibo, protezione dall’erosione e bioremediation, con applicazione in aree pilota e potenziale estensione a scala nazionale. Il progetto contribuisce a rafforzare le basi scientifiche a supporto delle attività di tutela, monitoraggio e ripristino degli ecosistemi marino-costieri.
IDAlert – Infectious Disease decision-support tools and Alert systems to build climate Resilience to emerging health Threats
Climate change is one of several drivers of recurrent outbreaks and geographical range expansion of zoonotic infectious diseases in Europe. Policy and decision-makers need tailored monitoring of climate-induced disease risk, and decision support tools for timely early warning and impact assessment for proactive preparedness and timely responses. The abundance of open data in Europe allows the establishment of more effective, accessible, and cost-beneficial prevention and control responses. IDAlert will co-create novel policy-relevant pan-European indicators that track past, present, and future climate-induced disease risk across hazard, exposure, and vulnerability domains at the animal, human and environment interface. Indicators will be sub-national and disaggregated through an inequality lens. We will generate tools to assess cost-benefit of climate change adaptation and mitigation measures across sectors and scales, to reveal novel policy entry points and opportunities. Surveillance, early warning and response systems will be co-created and prototyped to increase health system resilience at regional and local levels, and explicitly reduce socio-economic inequality. Indicators and tools will be co-produced through multilevel engagement, innovative methodologies, existing and new data streams and citizen science, taking advantage of intelligence generated from selected hotspots in Spain, Greece, The Netherlands, Sweden, and Bangladesh that are experiencing rapid urban transformation and heterogeneous climate-induced disease threats. For implementation, IDAlert has assembled European authorities in climate modelling, infectious disease epidemiology, social sciences, environmental economics, One Health and EcoHealth. Further, by engaging critical stakeholders from the start, IDAlert will ensure long-lasting impacts on EU climate policy, and provide new evidence and tools for the
IM4CA: Investigating Methane for Climate Action
The IM4CA project will develop methods and deliver scientific knowledge and data on the regional and global sources and sinks of atmospheric methane in the past, present, and future. Based on this information, IM4CA will provide recommendations on effective measures to mitigate the adverse climate impacts of atmospheric methane as required by the Paris agreement and the Global Methane Pledge.
InBestSoil: Monetary valuation of soil ecosystem services and creation of initiatives to invest in soil health: setting a framework for the inclusion of soil health in business and in the policy making process
InBestSoil is a project funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe programme involving twenty partners from ten countries, with very different profiles (universities, small and medium-sized enterprises, consultancies, farmers, and NOGs, among others). The project will provide data, evidence, tools and models to assess how investment in soil health can contribute to the transition to a long-term resilient and sustainable use of soil, using 6 lighthouses and 3 living labs, which provides a total of 9 study areas across 4 biogeographic regions from Europe (Boreal, Continental, Atlantic, Mediterranean), and different land uses (agriculture, forest, urban, mining), as models for co-creation and co-design (multi-actor approach, responsible research and innovation and open science).
Invest4Nature – Promoting investments in NBS and accelerating market uptake by gaining a better understanding of the economic performance of NBS, considering climate mitigation and risk reduction
Currently there is a range of Nature-based solutions (NBS) emerging mostly with strong public funding elements, but a market for NBS has not yet emerged. While mostly small scale NBS are implemented as pilots for urban resilience to climate change the full range of economic and societal benefits for NBS are not systematically understood and mapped and are not sufficiently used to back the business and investment case for NBS. The numerous benefits may include mitigation and adaptation to climate change (including the reduction of urban heat island effect and flood mitigation), reduction of pollution, improved biodiversity and ecosystem services, increased well-being for citizens, including physical and mental health or recreation, social cohesion, and community building. While effort for climate change mitigation and adaptation are increasing, the role of NBS in this context is not well understood. In particular, risk reduction of NBS for the private and public insurance sector has not yet been systematically included in economic valuation of NBS. Holistic understanding of benefits and benefit flows however are important for the society including upscaling and maximising the benefits achievable with NBS and activation financing for NBS.
JOHN: Joint Operations for monitoring antHropogenic and Natural GHG emissions and sinks
Climate change is one of the most pressing challenges facing humanity, and effective action depends on high-quality information on greenhouse gas sources and sinks. Such information must be usable, accessible, effective and interoperable, so that governments, citizens, businesses and civil society can make informed decisions in response to the climate crisis. The JOHN project — Joint Operations for monitoring antHropogenic and Natural GHG emissions and sinks — supports this need by strengthening the value chains that connect observations, data synthesis, analysis and reporting. Today, global knowledge of climate-controlling greenhouse gas cycles relies on a complex network of local, national and continental programmes, including those contributing to the Global Carbon Project. Although these systems provide authoritative annual information on the global carbon cycle, some of their underlying value chains are fragile or declining in quality. JOHN will contribute to the transformation of these systems, also in view of the WMO Global Greenhouse Gas Watch. The project will audit the current observing system, including governance and financial arrangements, identify barriers to improved performance, scan emerging technologies that can reduce costs, deliver practical improvements to existing value chains, and develop action plans for long-term transformation aligned with future funding opportunities.
LIFE21-IPC-IT-LIFE CLIMAX PO | CLIMate Adaptation for the PO river basin district
CLIMAX PO is a project funded by a LIFE grant of the European Commission. CLIMAX PO brings together most national and regional and some of the local authorities playing a role in implementing the Italian strategy on adaptation in the Po River Basin, an area of 74.000 km2 , with 3.200 local authorities, 16 million inhabitant and generating 40% of the Italian GDP. CLIMAX PO is led by the National Po River Basin District Authority (ADBPO) chaired directly by the Italian Minister for the Environment and responsible for the implementation of the NAS at district level. The consortium covers the whole geographical river basin, all levels of Governance (National, Regional, Local) and necessary competences with 3 major research institutes on board.
LIQUIDICE: LinkIng and QUantifying the Impacts of climate change on inlanD ICE, snow cover, and permafrost on water resources and society in vulnerable regions
Recognizing the central role played by snow, ice and permafrost in the global climate system, the LIQUIDICE project joins expert cryospheric observers and modelers to: i) comprehensively re-assess the past and future century-plus of climate-induced high impact changes to the Greenland ice sheet and climate vulnerable locations across the Alps, Norway, High Mountain Asia (HMA) and Svalbard, including permafrost areas and their ecosystems; ii) develop new, expanded and harmonized data from satellite Earth Observation (EO) and ground stations; iii) use these data to improve and test a hierarchy of ice sheet and glacier models with Earth System Models (ESMs); iv) through these steps, yield new process understanding, and ultimately v) inform water resource, hydropower, and socio-economic strategies through clear and transparent communication of results and uncertainties. The project’s strengths lie in new multidisciplinary collaborations across 18 research institutions, from eight European countries (Poland, Italy, Denmark, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Norway, United Kingdom) and India, encompassing expertise in field observations, satellite EO techniques, ESM development and application, and socio-economic analysis. Key deliverables include a) FAIR-principled new multi-decade data catalogues of multi-regional snow water equivalent and a 44-year EO-derived albedo record; b) assessments of impact of model resolution and degree of coupling on results; c) refined past and future glacier, ice cap and Greenland ice sheet freshwater fluxes to oceans and global sea level rise with indirect constraint on Antarctica; d) new hydrological simulations for HMA; e) a new framework for a Water Discharge Impact Assessments; f) socio-economic integrated risk and adaptation assessments;
MED-IREN: Mediterranean critical Infrastructure Resilience Engineering with Nature based solutions (MED-IREN)
The Med-IREN project is strategically designed to demonstrate actionable solutions for climate-proofing critical infrastructures across the Mediterranean, with a particular focus on enhancing resilience through Nature-Based Solutions (NBS). These solutions will be applied to improve climate risk management and ensure business continuity in the face of extreme climate change. The project will be implemented in five key lighthouse regions across the Mediterranean (Granollers, PACA, Ischia, Tuscany, Egaleo), each addressing a specific, present-day challenge. These regions will align with regional policies, further contributing to the EU’s position as a global leader in climate resilience. Moreover, the project will leverage Dataclime, CMCC’s advanced climate service platform, to provide cutting-edge data and analytics for real-time monitoring and risk assessment, ensuring that the project’s impact is grounded in the most up-to-date scientific evidence and fostering actionable insights for stakeholders
MEDEWSA – Mediterranean and pan-European forecast and Early Warning System against natural hazards
Natural hazards, such as extreme weather events, are exacerbated by climate change. As a result, emergency responses are becoming more protracted, expensive, frequent, and stretching limited available resources. This is especially apparent in rapidly warming regions. MedEWSa addresses these challenges by providing novel solutions to ensure timely, precise, and actionable impact and finance forecasting, and early warning systems (EWS) that support the rapid deployment of first responders to vulnerable areas.
MER IP400: EVALUATION AND INTERCOMPARISON OF GLOBAL MARINE ENVIRONMENT REANALYSES (Lot 3 – Evaluation and Intercomparison of global physical reanalyses MER-EP)
The project covers the validation and intercomparison of the next generation of global ocean reanalyses for the Copernicus Marine Service.
MISSION: MaritIme juSt in time optimiSatION Interoperable Port Call and Voyage Optimization tool
The MISSION project will eliminate bottlenecks of the overall maritime supply chain creating significant economic advantages for direct stakeholders and environmental benefits for society. By enabling collaboration among stakeholders and allowing ship schedules to be synchronised, ship operations and port services will be optimised, thus enhancing the efficiency of maritime operations and reducing the fuel consumption and GHG emissions. The project will demonstrate the benefits and challenges of MISSION specifically for three shipping segments, Tramp (bulk and tanker) RoRo, and container ship traffic, connecting ports in the European seas of Spain, Italy, Greece and Lithuania. MISSION’s port call optimisation and end-to-end orchestration of different traffic types will be built on data sharing platforms, with reference to harmonised standards and provide application programming interfaces for interoperability.
MOIRAI: Multiscale Ocean models and Information for climate Risk Assessment and Impact mitigation
MOIRAI, named after the three Greek goddesses of fate, is a pioneering project that integrates historical data, present observations, and future projections to enhance ocean and biogeochemical climate modeling across European seas. Aligned with the frameworks of Destination Earth (DE) and the Digital Twin of the Ocean (DTO), it aims to support the European Green Deal by improving climate resilience in coastal areas. Central to MOIRAI is the development of REASSHORE, a modular, interoperable hub designed to deliver actionable ocean risk and adaptation strategies for end-users.
MULTICLIMACT: MULTI-faceted CLIMate adaptation ACTions per migliorare la resilienza, la preparazione e la capacità di risposta dell’ambiente costruito a fronte di molteplici pericoli su più scale
Il progetto europeo MULTICLIMACT è stato finanziato nell’ambito del tema HORIZON-CL5-2022-D4-02-01. Questo progetto mira a migliorare la resilienza dell’ambiente costruito e dei suoi abitanti di fronte al cambiamento delle condizioni climatiche e all’aumento degli eventi estremi. MULTICLIMACT vuole realizzare un quadro di riferimento completo e un kit di strumenti per valutare e rafforzare la resilienza a varie scale, considerando sia i rischi naturali che le vulnerabilità della catena di approvvigionamento.
NADIR: Programma di Citizen science per scuole e cittadini finalizzato al monitoraggio degli ecosistemi marino-costieri, qualità delle acque
Il progetto NADIR è un’iniziativa di Citizen Science realizzata dal CMCC in collaborazione con il Circolo Legambiente Capo di Leuca APS. Nell’ambito del progetto, i partner intendono organizzare una serie di attività volte al coinvolgimento attivo della cittadinanza tra cui: escursioni in barca a vela, giornaliere, nel weekend e settimanali, per contribuire al monitoraggio degli ecosistemi costiero-marini e di variabili oceanografiche e atmosferiche; percorsi di Alternanza Scuola-Lavoro con le scuole del territorio, per lo sviluppo di competenze trasversali e l’orientamento degli studenti; attività di tagging (marcatura tramite sistemi GPS) delle tartarughe marine; esperienze pratiche a bordo in ambiti quali oceanografia operativa e sperimentale, ecologia marina e climatologia; progettazione, costruzione e utilizzo di strumenti per il monitoraggio marino. Le attività del progetto contribuiranno alle campagne di monitoraggio promosse dalla Jonian Dolphin Foundation, nonché ai servizi europei di EMODnet, CMEMS e al programma strategico di ricerca del CMCC “Global Coast as a New Frontier”.
NBRACER: Nature Based Solutions for Atlantic Regional Climate Resilience
NBRACER is a project funded by HORIZON Europe Research and Innovation actions in support of the implementation of the Adaptation to Climate Change Mission (HORIZON-MISS-2022-CLIMA-01). NBRACER aims at accelerating the transformation towards climate resilient regions that are safe, green, clean and healthy by means of an innovative and practical approach, by working across sectors and disciplines, experimenting and involving local communities.
NECCTON- New Copernicus capability for trophic ocean networks
The ocean’s biodiversity supports the livelihoods of over three billion people, providing vital services, including food and nutrient cycling. However marine policy and resource management do not yet consider the latest scientific advances, even when the state-of- the-art operational models of the European Copernicus Marine Service (CMEMS) are used. The project’s objective is to enable CMEMS to deliver novel products that inform marine biodiversity conservation and food resources management, by fusing new data into innovative ecosystem models that integrate biological and abiotic components, habitats, and stressors of marine ecosystems. NECCTON will inter-link new models in the CMEMS systems, thus building novel capacities to simulate higher-trophic-levels, benthic habitats, pollutants, and deliver projections of climate change impacts. We will develop and exploit new data-processing chains, supporting CMEMS’ use of novel ecosystem observations, including new hyperspectral data from satellites, as well as available acoustic, pollution and omics data. We will fuse these new data and models by using innovative machine-learning algorithms to improve models and data assimilation methods. These developments will be applied in thirteen case studies, co-designed with fisheries and conservation managers as part of our pathway-to-impact, resulting in the demonstration of Technological Readiness Level 6 of NECCTON products. The project objectives will be achieved by a team of twenty-three world-class organizations with track records for all the key project components. It includes the CMEMS Entrusted Entity and core developers, who will promote the final uptake of NECCTON by CMEMS. On project completion, NECCTON will provide CMEMS with the scientific and technical
NEWPATHWAYS: New pathways for equitable climate action in line with the paris agreement and sustainable development
NEWPATHWAYS is a project funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe programme and the consortium consists of 13 partners, and brings together leading research groups to support climate policymaking within and outside the EU. These research groups are involved in modelling international climate policy, national policies, social science, policy analysis, environmental assessment, and stakeholder engagement.
NUBICOS: New Users for a Better ICOS
The Integrated Carbon Observation System (ICOS) is a fully operational European Landmark research infrastructure providing standardised high-precision observations on greenhouse gases and their fluxes. The ICOS infrastructure is currently covering 16 countries with 170 stations. In this project, we will work with new users for ICOS data from satellite and modeling communities and prepare products for policymakers. We are improving sustainability of ICOS by streamlining the data pipelines and strengthening the community engagement including new members. In addition to data, ICOS is producing protocols and processes, which are now needed for the global greenhouse gases (GHG) initiative coordinated by World Meteorological Organization (WMO), thus strengthening the European leadership in it. NUBICOS will focus on four specific objectives: 1. The cooperation between ICOS and the remote sensing community will be deepened. 2. The value chain from observations to climate services will be improved. 3. The internal engagement of ICOS and the identity of the ICOS community will be strengthened. 4. The global cooperation of ICOS, particularly in the WMO framework, will be intensified.
ObsSea4Clim: Ocean observations and indicators for climate and assessments
ObsSea4Clim brings together key European actors within ocean observing science, climate assessment, Earth System modelling, data sharing and standards, with users of oceanographic products and services to deliver an improved observation framework based on Essential Ocean & Climate Variables (EOV/ECVs).
OceanICU – Ocean-ICU Improving Carbon Understanding
The Ocean plays a crucial role in the global C cycle, taking up approximately 25% of the CO2 we emit to the atmosphere, and thus slowing the rate of climate change. The future trajectory of this sink will affect the timing and intensity of the modifications to human processes that we need to undertake in order to stabilise atmospheric CO2 at 450ppm. Our ability to measure and model this sink is limited (evidenced by significant discrepancies between measured and modelled C uptake) with the current frontier area of research being a suite of biological processes related to higher trophic level behaviour within the so called biological C pump. This involvement of higher organisms suggests that human activities (fishing, energy and mineral extraction) has the capacity to affect the ocean C sink however we lack the ability to quantitatively link direct human pressures and ocean C storage. Ocean ICU will measure these key processes and evaluate their overall significance, transferring those that are important into models that inform the IPCC process and in this way contribute to resolving the observed model data mismatch of Ocean C sink estimates. We will use the fundamental knowledge we acquire around biological systems to evaluate the ability of human interventions in the ocean to alter the carbon cycle and produce management tools that allow the tension between resource extraction and C storage to be addressed. This component will involve extensive dialogue with end users and stakeholders and lead to a Decision Support Tool that will